Living Earth Television is working towards creating a global public television network so that local producers of documentary programs worldwide can share their work with a global audience. We are based in Illinois in the USA, near Chicago. Our website is at www.LETV.org. Would love to hear your thoughts about our work!

It's a wonderful concept. I am disapointed there was no content on the site. I guess it is still under development. I am looking forward to seeing meaningful content, connecting people globally. I would like to contribute, if possible.

Hi, Aditya,

I hope you will take a look at http://www.LETV.org. We have an organization called Living Earth Television that is building a global public television broadcasting network. The website is being updated to tell that we are beginning broadcasting next spring with a series of 13 documentaries made in China by Chinese TV producers. These programs will be shown initially on Public Broadcasting System (PBS) stations in the US, and we expect to offer them to existing public broadcasters around the world. LETV will continue its work with more series from other parts of the world - Africa and Latin America are planned following the China series - and we want to launch a satellite channel to broadcast globally, in dozens of languages, when funding allows.

We would be grateful for your thoughts about the concept, and any potential sources of funding you can suggest. We are currently raising funds in the US and China for the initial series, and expect to expand to a global funding base as well as global sources of and audiences for programming.

Hi Martha,
I have already visited the said site. I was under the impression the content would also be linked to the site, so that it could be viewed by anyone on the net. Employing streaming mirror servers at strategic locations would give you a much larger audience than the footprint of satellite broadcast and would work out cheaper too. Broadband is nearly everywhere now, and convergence is the key factor in communications. Even media communications.

As far as funding is concerned, every documentary producer and production company, that I know of, is looking for funding for new projects ... including myself .. it's amusing.

Hi, Aditya,
Thanks for your thoughts. Living Earth TV is initially working with broadcast TV, although we will be streaming some web content eventually. There are still vast areas of the world where broadband is not available - its reach is still very limited relative to TV, available only to those who can pay for it and also who are literate - mostly urban areas in developed countries. The broadband audience is important, but we are really dedicated to providing programming even to the poor and rural populations, pretty much all of whom do have access to television worldwide. Even rural villages usually have a community TV, even if individuals don't own one. There are also licensing issues with the filmmakers: I don't think there's a model yet for bringing in enough money with webcasts to cover costs of production and distribution, and we want to be able to pay filmmakers for their work. This is of course an issue with all media - the music industry is probably leading the way, with the question of how the artists and producers get paid if distribution is free.

I do know of a few projects - and I'll post something on these on the Conscious Media website discussion strand - that are working with your concept of web-based distribution. Two are www.dogooder.tv, based here in the Chicago area and streaming videos about the work of nonprofit/NGO organizations; another (that I came across but don't know a lot about yet) is www.Nomadsland.com. I expect there will be more and more of these, and some will succeed in figuring out the funding and marketing to stay around.

And finally, yep, we're all looking for funding. When your original post said you would like to contribute, I thought you probably meant programming... but there was the off chance you were talking funding! So, thought I would ask! Good luck with your fundraising. It's a job in itself.

WIll you post something about your own work? Or other related projects you know of in India or elsewhere? This is a great forum for all of us finding out what is going on, and it has been really great to see more and more activity in the group.

I agree with you that there are areas where broadband is not available, but then, who are your target audience? are they the ones who can make a difference, or those, who will due to circumstances, remain passive. The concept of LETV is wonderful, but only to those who can appreciate the importance, significance of such a project and bring about the change required after assimilating the information in the video. The big question is who will want to watch and not who should watch. I feel LETV, according to the proposed content, will have a very select, niche audience. And it won't be surprising if 99% of them have broadband.

Fund flow for such projects will eventually arrive. It has to. I'm banking on it. I used to produce video for the corporate sector and occasionally, still do. Last couple of months I have been trying to work out a financially feasible solution to project the work done by NGO's in India. It is a bit difficult in making them comprehend the importance of the concept. Some are shy, some are apprehensive, and then there are those who just would not like to do it, fearing exposure.

Then I am also working on a project to provide free education online in subjects like accounts, economics, commerce etc. In India, imparting education has become a business and such has been it's influence, that most universities around the globe hold fairs here, to woo students and partake a share of the cake.

Recently I was visiting an educational project of an NGO, to work out costing for production. They provide free education and materials to children living in slums and I was overwhelmed by the enthusiasm shown by the kids. The otherwise, carefree urchins sitting in a class and aborbing knowledge while enjoying it, was a sight to see. The said NGO is deliberating if they should invest in regular webcasts and I am trying to rope in some corporate's to foot the nominal costs. I believe, if the project gets exposure, funding will follow and they would be able to expand operations.

Jessica Mayberry, Founder and Director of http://videovolunteers.org is trying to set up community video workshops in India to give people voice that'll be heard. She is providing the camera's, pc's and software to effect production. I was offered a job to train the people of the community in production. But then, time, inclination and apptitude are factors many people neglect, be it for watching or producing video. Someone else has to do it for them. Hand made paper, shoes, cloth is different, they are doing it for ages and for a living. Ask a cobbler to produce video, he would rather make four pair of shoes. Ask him to watch a video, I guess he'll still prefer making shoes, unless it's entertainment.

Maybe I've reflected extreme examples, but the factors of inclination, apptitude and time with some variation remain the same across the segments in society.

And THANKS for the URL's